On 24 February 2005, the European Parliament adopted an own-initiative report on "Promoting Health and Safety at the Workplace" by Jiri Mastalka (CZ, GUE/NGL).
The report is a reply to the Commission’s Communication on how the Framework Directive of 1989 and five individual Directives on occupational health and safety have been transposed into national law and applied (see related EPHA’s article).
Parliament’s resolution notes that Community legislation has made an important improvement in terms of health and safety protection at work but voices a number of concerns:
The report points out that around 50% of workers in the EU do not have access to preventive services and calls on the Commission to address this issue.
MEPs express concern regarding the excessively high rate of accidents among temporary and short-term workers and urge the Member States to reach swift agreement on the draft Directive on temporary work.
The resolution calls for a set of concrete measures relating to houshold work and specific problems faced by women in the workplace.
It also urges Member States to increase the number, quality and powers of work inspectorates and to enhance the training and qualifications of inspectors.
In addition, the report suggests that the use of the open method of coordination (OMC) might facilitate the implementation of EU health and safety legislation. This method requires the Member States to swap experience and good practice - but without introducing binding European legislation (see EPHA’s briefing note on OMC).
Finally, MEPs express their concern about the adverse health effects of the draft Services Directive as well as the proposed revision of Working Time Directive.
